Boarding the Ark for Southern Italy
I believe Courtline may have achieved many firsts in its short but eventful life but few match for hilarity the very hot night in July 1973 when a one off charter from and to Southern Italy (either Naples or Salerno) came very close to the operating limits of the 1-11 500. The Duty Officer that night warned us to check baggage weights carefully and not permit anything over 20Kgs.
Needless to say when the Mamas and the Papas turned up they had all travelled with kitchen sinks (and had clearly acquired a bath whilst in the UK), and as the Duty Officer pointed out the standard weights used for the pax (male and female) could be thrown out of the window at 30,000 ft. They had all spent a lifetime on Pasta and Vino Rosso and many were as broad as they were long. The deafening cacophony that arose in the Terminal building when word got around that 20 kg was the limit and no argument just added to the difficulty of communication between monoglot Brits and monoglot Italians.
The Duty Officer took umbrage at one passenger who he thought had called him a b******d until the tour leader defused the situation by explaining 'Basta' was Italian for 'we've had enough'. So we had 119 'overweight' pax with a lot of baggage (the contents of some was actually left on the terminal floor to reduce weight). What happened next I've dined on for years.
The Night Duty Officer called us in and in hushed tones said 'we're going to board them as normal...and then...we're going to weigh each passenger at the foot of the forward steps and then reboard them through the aft. OPs have sent a guy home to get his bathroom scales. Once on Board Pax Services will not be required.(Sigh of relief)' You could have heard a pin drop.
That night a cluster of Court, Britannia and Monarch Ground Staff in the know watched discreetly (but many with tears in their eyes) as Courtline Flight Operations weighed 119 Italians of assorted shapes and sizes at the foot of the forward steps. Many looked more confused than angry when asked to step onto the scales. As a final idignity they were made to circumnavigate a stewardess under the wing tip on their way back to the aft entrance. The question on everyone's lips was 'What did the Captain say to the Pax?'